Abstract: Objective To develop Autism Social Skills Scale (ASSS) and examine its validity and reliability. Methods With the definition of social skills presented by Nancy J. Patrick as theoretical basis, the preliminary ASSS (first version) was developed by literature analysis, open questionnaire. Totally, 392 children with autism participated in the pre-investigation, and the structure of the scale was confirmed after selecting and modifying items, then the second version of ASSS was developed. To test the validity and reliability of ASSS (formal version), totally 889 children with autism were sampled as respondents tested for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and internal consistency test, and criterion validity was tested with the social domain of the first version Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) and Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). Totally 95 children with autism were retested three weeks later to exam the test-retest reliability. Results ASSS was composed of 50 items in five factors, including social orienting, social recognition, social communication, social participation and self-regulation, and 70.81% of the variance could be explained totally. Furthermore, the result of CFA (χ2/df=2.02, RMSEA=0.075, NFI=0.96, NNFI=0.97, CFI=0.97, IFI=0.97, TLI=0.98, GFI=0.91) indicated that the model fitted the data with well construct validity. The scores of ASSS were positively correlated with the social domains of the scores of the first version VABS (r=0.535-0.796, P<0. 01), while negatively correlated with The scores of CARS (r=-0.517 to -0.600, P<0.01). The Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.98 for the whole scale and 0.94-0.98 for the five factors. The test-retest coefficients were 0.92 for the whole scale and 0.88-0.94 for the five factors. Conclusion ASSS including five factors as social orienting, social recognition, social communication, social participation and self-regulation, has acceptable reliability and validity and it is a good tool to assess the social skills for the children with autism.

Key words: autism, children, Autism Social Skills Scale, development, psychometrics